Aaand she's off!

Making lists, making piles, errand running, packing, weighing, re-packing...that is what my life has consisted of for about the last month! And now...time is almost up! Tomorrow I leave for California, where I will meet up with the others going to Heidelberg, and we will have a few last minute meetings and such, and we take off early Friday morning!

The title of my blog means "Around the world". Weell, that is, according to freetranslation.com...yeeeah i am going to study in a country where I know not one word of the language! But we will have a few days right when we arrive where we will take a German crash course, and then I'll be taking a 4-credit German class all semester.

I am getting anxious to go, but right now I would say the word that best describes my state of being is clueless! Clueless about what I'll need, what to pack, what to expect, what I'll do there, what I'll miss, what I'll love. This will certainly be an adventure:) It is kind of fun to go into it with little idea of what exactly I'm walking into. Since this is the first year APU has had a study abroad program for music majors, it's all brand new to them too! So, we get to be the guinea pigs, which I'm sure will have some perks!

I am not sure when I will next be able to write. I know that when we arrive in Heidelberg, we are just there for a few days, and then we take off for our first trip! We'll go to Eisenach, Weimar, Leipzig. Upon returning, we start classes on the 8th!

I will try to make this blog as interesting as possible, which probably means NOT writing extremely often:) While I'm sure you all are just sitting there dying to know what i'm doing every minute of my day, I think I'll let you sit and wonder for awhile! :) But I will try to update regularly and include pictures! If any of you are interested in just seeing more of Heidelberg, this is a link to the director of our program's website, and he has taken a lot of pictures of the town. -http://gallery.mac.com/timothy.schwarz#gallery- It looks absolutely beautiful! I have heard nothing but good things about the town, so I am looking forward to calling it "home" for a few months and getting to explore all it's beauty! I am extremely excited that I will get to experience a "fall" again! That is something i have DEEPLY missed since leaving Iowa. I can't wait to crunch the leaves and see lots of colors. Howeeeever I'm frightened to death about being cold again! I liek to pretend that I'm big and bad and tough being bad frmo the midwest, but the truth is that I became quite a baby since moving to California, and now anything below 60 seems frigid to me! I'm taking three coats, though, so hopefully, if i layer all of them...I'll be okay:)

I really am keeping this blog for a couple of reasons. One, so that you can all have an idea of what I'm experiencing where I am, but also because I really would LOVE to hear from any of you, all of you! I would not have put you on this list if that wasn't the case, so please, if you have any thoughts or any thing to share, please please comment or shoot me an email - rrgrove@hotmail.com. You are all dear to me, and even though I will shortly be across the world, I will no less be caring about what is happening in your lives! Please keep me in the loop as well:)

Well, back to packing and squeezing in as much time with my family and friends as I can! here I go...next stop...Europe!